Based in biology terminology, this ‘stasis’ relates to organisms and the way the ‘whole’ can be maintained, the right amount of light, nutrients, etc to ensure the organism can survive. The organism dies when things get too far out of balance and things go astray. With limited ability to improvise – adapt – or overcome a simple organism has little chance of survival.

In business the ‘organism’ becomes more complex, there are more variables, in many cases it is a range of little ‘things’ which can make or break it’s ability to thrive let alone survive.

Lets look at a few variables

• Staff – motivated – skilled – communicating well?
• Systems – complex – simple – effective?
• Strategies – Marketing – Management – Operations – in place or not?
• Values – minimal – developing – fully developed – where are things at?
• Resources – tools – materials – workspaces – finances – training – well utilised?

Now you can see your business as a complex organism and one where the balance of all the factors to make it successful, have to be juggled carefully to keep things in harmony. In this case harmony can equal a static situation which does not allow for growth.

For the sake of your business, figuring out what is keeping the status quo where it’s at could be important in the logical approach to evaluating the situation. OR you could take a ‘quantum leap’ and step over that, avoid the analysis and look at a range of things that can be done that might not already be done, to head things in a healthier direction. A bit like doing a range of exercises to build core strength in a body when you thought you could get away with just one or two exercises, often the result is better in the long run.

What you can do

• Communication – Discuss – projects – people – resources – aim to connect – synergise – empower – inspire – what works – what doesn’t – distil lessons learnt & distribute – reduce barriers – reduce hassles
• Create a learning cycle – Assess a project before it starts – assess it inn progress – evaluate the aftermath, what went well, what didn’t and what can you learn from it
• Aim for excellence – “If it could be done better do it!” look at all aspects to what makes things tick- Systems – strategies – skills – structure – service – quality (to name a few)
• Provide a sense of belonging – achievement – contribution
• Goal set – share the info – share the wins – explore the challenges and shortcomings.
• Love your people – they make the hard resources move – they do the ‘stuff’ that pays the bills and builds the profits if  you love them they will love the customers
• Love  your customers – connect – discuss – focus – ask – explore them – know them – let them know you and your team

All of these things can keep your team nimble and exploring a wider range of actions and thinking processes than their usual comfort zone allows. All of this should allow your business to explore the idea of thriving, not just standing still in a warm spot where things are comfortable but pushing at least some of the boundaries to make things work better.

In business you can have a range of reasons as to why you do things… To make a profit and get rich (yeah right…) to be my own boss, to feed my ego, to provide  service and products to a niche market.

Lets go deeper. In business you might decide to do some things to make your business stand out from the crowd. Perhaps it’s a promotional event of some kind, you figure you can spend some $$ invite people over to your business and at some stage they will buy. Perhaps you figured the media will come and you will get wider kudos and therefore more publicity from the event.

For me there is some form of internal ‘buzz’ I get out of doing things, projects (in my case arty projects) to the point where I will produce a range of Artworks with an aim of exploring a theme of some kind with a bigger picture of exhibiting them (rarely happens) so I pursue a dream, and I get a ‘buzz’ from it. I then go onto the next project hoping things might go further… I continue to produce.

What about you, what’s your reason for doing what you do?

• Ego -”I’m important look at me”. (What, you only lasted six months, but you were important and hey you gave it a go).
• Profit – “I’m in business and I can make a greater return than any investment I know of” (You hope.)
• You’re the boss – You get staff, they do the work, you sit back and watch (nice idea, doesn’t always work that way).
• You have a great idea you think the world will want to buy – Maybe it is the best idea since ‘sliced bread’ but what if it’s not… done any research yet?
• I want more promotional coverage for the business – You run an event to get people in, hopefully people who have not used your business before but hopefully will in the future. Perhaps the local radio station team up with you and run a sausage sizzle, it costs you a heap of $$ and you hope for the best. Was the effort really worth it? Note the key word here is ‘hope’

Ok so what was the big deal with going for open plan in the first place? Cost? Having the chance to break down barriers? More open communication? Other…

Let’s go the other way, what’s the deal with a ‘closed’ office? Greater privacy – Easier to concentrate – Cut down on noise – More wall space (for planning charts and so on…) – Your computer can be oriented so only you see what’s on the screen (ok not the best reason but surely quiet important!)

Perhaps the best way is to go halfway (is that possible?) creating spaces which offer users the ability to have privacy, a sense of security, still have some degree of communication openness, not have the cost of a full office, and provide the user with that sense of ownership or personalisation without having everyone look at your personal items etc

Maybe we could go for the cocoon, or pod, I seem to recollect back in the 70’s the Illustrator Roger Dean (Did lots of futuristic and fantasy album covers) created a whole bunch of futuristic spacey spaces and one of them included a ‘Learning Pod’ and individual cocoon shaped like a giant seed pod. Is that a way to go…

I believe the answer probably lies in clearly looking at what the business, your business, is all about and exploring the ideal way to make what needs to happen, happen, in the most effective way possible.

If your team really work as a team, then maybe a team space is required with separate areas to compile info for the team.

If your team are working directly with customers, then perhaps they just need a space where they can do that with minimal fuss.

If your team are a bunch of slackers and serve no real purpose to your amazingly big conglomerate then perhaps a bunch of hotel rooms with Wi Fi connectivity might be the go…

I guess what I am really saying is to ‘go deep’ and look at the specific reasons your team need the space they need and how they will interact (or not). I guess I am also thinking make the space adaptable so things can be altered when the need arises.

Oh and let’s not forget the concept of status, where the ‘boss’ gets the ‘closed office and privacy’ and the others get ‘open space and prying eyes’ surely we can think beyond that and come up with spaces which cause people to believe they are highly valued contributors without any loss of status.

Perhaps open plan failure is just a starting point to creating office space success.

There’s lots of other talk too, less Entrepreneurs entering the market place with big ideas. Then there’s people losing jobs left right and centre as businesses close up and walk away, or go offshore to chase cheaper ways to manufacture.

With all this I can sense bitterness in the air, people in business cursing those that don’t buy, (or by online…) cursing the idea of having to set up a business in a down economy, cursing the thought of having to think creatively to overcome challenges and create anew. The list goes on.

Things change, get used to that.

It’s up to you what you end up doing about it, in business there are options, generally the more cash you have the more options you have.

But wait the “bootstrap-ocracy” will tell us you don’t need money, you need ideas, followed by a great pitch to the right people and before you know it a business has emerged from nothing.

I heard a conversation the other day that suggested all business ideas are bootstrapped, even if you put a few Million into the start up phase you then have to pay that back at some stage so  you are possibly worse off than if you started with zero $$ it just seems easier.

What will make a business thrive through 2012 and on into the future. Lots of things, the ability to handle change, be creative with their ideas and explore ways to make those ideas become reality so the zero start up can become a heroic organism which can stride forward with confidence. In a word nimble.

Go on get nimble, get creative and make hay before the weather changes and the hay goes sour. The wider community is waiting for the right people to do the right things and keep things moving. “Tag… you’re it!”

Four interesting findings about innovation emerged from his workshop.

1. Most large organizations have or have had innovation processes in the form of idea programmes in place. They work to varying degrees, none appear highly successful.
2. Most organizational innovation produces isolated successes, yet does not sustain organizationally over long periods. I used a case study with a 6 year life cycle and that represented a lengthy period according to the participants.
3. None of the innovation programmes discussed had benchmarking or on-going measurement associated with them enabling decision makers to value organizational innovation. Once the innovation had been implemented, it was regarded simply as a part of the business regardless of its impact. As a result, it appears decision makers in organizations are not able to meaningfully assess over time the value of innovation programmes or processes.
4. Whilst innovation programmes might be considered part of an organization’s core values. if they don’t have senior leadership driving them in a coherent and disciplined manner, they have little chance of being considered truly strategic and are likely to die if there is a change in leadership.

Dr.Ralph Kerle

Let’s start with what innovation is, it’s either a quantum leap or incremental process, either way it’s about finding ways forward to produce an organisation which can function more effectively.

The big thing, it’s often about using creative thinking processes to spark the change, however most business processes follow logic and are not often linked to creativity even though they look to innovation for a “way forward”.

There’s the challenge, to take a logical organism (business) and marry it with creative thinking (ideas and processes which may have only a few logical processes as part of them). Especially if there are few examples of creativity making big inroads into business development. (Some would argue market leaders like apple computers fly against this).

Some thoughts

• Use innovation
• Value innovation
• Push to innovate
• Explore it!
• The board should be creative junkies
• The board should be implementing it at every level
• The team don’t get it because they are following the lead (fail on creativity guys)
• Forget JUST innovation go for creativity and see what happens (does it lead to innovation, usually yes).
• Measurement, take a look at the bottom line, are there more dollars, is there greater retention of staff (therefore some reduced costs), are staff happier? You get the idea make a big list and see if the creative invasion has made a difference
• Ask your team to brainstorm the difference innovation and creative approaches might make, then measure that
• Does your organisation have a culture which can handle creative approaches, if not why not and how might you alter that?
• How does the main team get to value creativity and innovation?
• Do your team say “Oh no another silly thingy we have to deal with from ‘upstairs’” or do they look on with interest.
• Plan do check act – try – do check act plan…
• Improvise adapt overcome – try – adapt overcome improvise…
• Replace “They won’t go for that” with “Go for that it might just make a BIG difference”
• Replace “do it now” thinking with “do it yesterday?”
• Think save the world with our actions because we can, via innovation
• Think… explore… create… and or ANY combination of those
• Ask, is the ball rolling effectively or are there any obstacles in it’s way? Now innovate that for results. BIG results
• Pose creative questions at all levels, all the time
• Ask for creative responses to challenges (you shouldn’t have to after a while)
• Ask, what creative process do I not know about that we can use now…
• Hire for creativity first skills, passion and abilities second…
• Hire based strongly on “What creative or innovative thing propelled you in your last role?” (even if they are applying for a menial role)

Enough, either see the road blocks or create the road ahead, make it a golden one with all the trimmings thanks.

I have a question however, what will they do with it?

Suggestion, for a whole bunch of people who can’t afford to buy the solar panels on their roofs use the $$ to give low income earners a way to reduce their utility costs, this will then mean less coal gets dug up as well. Makes sense to me. However I won’t be holding my breathe waiting for things to happen.

In your business are there similar opportunities? Are you missing out because of lack of thinking, risk taking etc… look closer you might find some powerful opportunities right under your noses.

Consider the role of a senior member of staff, perhaps a person in a strategic planning or Human Resource Development role. Your aim may well be to push some boundaries and open the playing field up to new ideas and options. In that case you may want a person with a different approach or cultural fit to the rest. This then raises questions about the type of cultural differences and skill sets you might want to have with this type of recruit.

How will you decide what culture and skill sets you require? That depends on the role and how much of a ‘shift’ you want to create in the system. Clearly if you go for a person who is totally different in their interests, values and beliefs to the rest of the team, you may end up with a situation where the gap between your current culture and your ‘imposed’ one is too great to sustain for any length of time. I liken it to a bridge trying to span a distance which is too great for the structure to hold for long, eventually it fails.

Your new cultural direction should consider the following points.

• The change should be different enough from the existing situation but still maintain structural integrity.
• Creative approaches or not? – if the existing culture requires stimulus to get it moving then a more creative skill set can do just that.
• If the growth pattern of the enterprise is stagnant then a more profit driven or sales oriented person can add value.
• Managing the change might need extra effort on the part of the HR dept, supervisors and team leaders to oversee the new direction.
• Is this culture re-shuffle a part of an ongoing strategic plan? – If so it will probably fit with a core value of innovation.  With that underpinning the new approach, the team should see the benefits this will bring for the longer term.
• Although a different cultural fit might be the main aim it doesn’t mean the core organisational values need to be ignored, in fact they are probably going to be strengthened by this new approach as terms such as respect – innovation and service get a bigger airing and may be explored at a deeper level.

Like anything changes to a business need to take into consideration various factors before being implemented but the above cultural development points might be a good starting point to consider.

Are they waiting for you to inspire them? Did you aim to inspire before they even started with your company…

Imagine a new employee getting a letter and a gift before starting with a new company… This way you can set up a positive position with that person before they start. The gift? A simple congratulations gift, flowers, a congratulation helium balloon etc, delivered to their home.

Then when they start, how will you wow them then… A great office environment, a well set up workspace, a warm welcome, allocating their start day in 12 months time as an anniversary “day off” for them (then every year after that)

What about existing workers, how do you inspire them so they feel truly valued? Random morning teas, small gift vouchers to mark great project milestones and completions.

Think about other ways you can do things to keep them interested, motivated and productive. The worker retention and greater morale these few activities can create is generally very profitable and well worth the investment of time and effort. Of course you need to make sure this kind of activity can be kept up – if your organisation is big enough to have a HR Dept, put them in charge of it. Either way inspiring your team should be a task which you make a top priority in good times and bad.

Ideas are ideas – do you record all the little ones, or just hope the big ones ‘stick’ you might just have a million $$ idea in a small gem but unless it’s recorded you may not be able to develop it because it was just a fleeting thought.

Inspiring spaces – your workspace may not be the greatest decorator wow space but does it provide you with enough stimulus to get things happening in your head (ideas and notions on business hopefully!) Are there white boards to jot down ideas, are there comfortable chairs so the staff can work optimally… you will probably have a few ideas about what might work well for your team now you can implement them.

Thought storming – Okay it’s brainstorming, but get your team into the idea of exploring options and ideas with an open ended approach (no negative putdowns for the ideas please) once they get into habit of working with creative thoughts you will probably find you can get more ideas than you have the ability to handle.

Breaks – all day everyday at the computer can be a lot to handle, if you can punctuate it with breaks this can make all the difference. Get your blood pumping by a quick walk, or clear your head by a quick spot of meditation, whatever works for you is useful. Heck some people even walk around their office doing ‘laps’ to get things moving.

Find new avenues – stuck in a rut from doing the ‘same old, same old” then it probably time for a well earned change. This might be as simple as taking a new route to work, or stopping at a park on the way home and having a walk. Or finding different places for lunch. See what ideas come to mind when you stretch yourself a little.

Content creation on your website etc is one thing, but getting your target to see it is another. here are a few ways to explore a few pieces of the puzzle and develop a few answers. If nothing else this should be a spring board for your people to come up with some new options, share those in the comments!

• Build digital communities people want to go to and stay at…. Give them reasons to stay, a gift, a prize and offer, an alliance, a chance to get tokens to build towards a bigger gift. along the way, they get your message.
• Word Of Mouth as a way to get people to check out your social media information, blogs etc… so make a  you tube video of some people telling each other about your service. Imagine an office where two people are filmed by an apparently “sneaky camera” they talk about some of the benefits of using your biz, they say the biz name poorly at first (so you can’t quite hear it) then it gets clearer over time. have an anonymous you tube acct so it’s not your biz acct, then as they walk off the camera sneaks up and your biz card features on a desk..
• Hand out your branded gear in an area where you are more likely to get to the sorts of companies which might use your services. Chat to your friendly branding expert for ideas and options.
• Link a series of approaches together, your linked in group, with your face book page, with your blog, with your website, with your email’s and links on faxes out and adverts with QR codes to a starting point on your website.
• Have fun doing suitable “stunts” and get media attention which features your website, a “mob event” for example try a creative dance group for some ideas.
• Provide a suitable enticement via a promotion to get people to head over to your blog and sign up… If they are your target market then great! if not just give them the thing and move on… its a number game.
• Create a PDF of value to your target market, they can only get after signing up to your blog. advertise it on  your facebook page and linked in group, while twittering about it a few times.
• Create self qualifying adverts, “When you want what we have go here…” then lead them to your website and give them a reward for doing so.
• Fortune cookies with a pr code in it to link to a specific page on your website.
• Create a you tube video with your website featured in it, make it interesting, like have a home movie, or show  a calm and beautiful scene of rolling waves make it short and to the point, heck make a bunch of them, then send links to them via your email list, of course the videos have your website details across the bottom.
• Load your autoresponder email outs with great tips, hints, ideas and links to your various resources. keep adding to it with brilliant information so they want to stay subscribed.
• Develop strategic digital partnerships with others who can link to your target market, this way you can get more leverage and be seen as a go to person for resources and ideas.
• Repetition, repetition,REPETITION!, some things just don’t change! Your adverts need to be seen by people multiple times to be effective… So will it be a branded product, a link to your site, PR codes (more linking…) emails to your targets or all of them! yep do the lot, one of them will be the one which connects!

More ideas you want to share? Use the comments section in the  header for this post to let us know..

It seems the amount of young people paying taxes will not be able to cover the ageing population and therefore cause a range of issues. In time the idea of no pension will rear its ugly head and those hoping to live long and prosper may well be in a bind, many having to work much longer simply to survive.

But wait, lets stop and think for a moment… In the standard world of physical work, when people get to retirement, they are finished. However the “standard world” is not the same as it once was, so can we come up with an alternative? I think there is a possibility of that, let’s take a look at one option.

As we get older we gain experience, and many of life’s lessons are hard won. In years gone by the shorter life expectancy and the failure of eyesight meant many tradespeople had a limit to their work life longevity. Now of course things are altering and people can work longer and therefore have the opportunity to create more and pass on more skills.

As technology evolves it is now very easy to be able to get a product to market fast. Consider a song you sing and put it up for sale on the internet, it could take no time at all and you could have a stream of income. The same for books and other things you can create and sell online.

I’m hinting here at utilising the information the ageing population have and finding ways for them to create residual or ongoing income from this information, skill and ability and they have.

Perhaps we need to alter the way we educate people and offer courses in how to get ideas to pay, so they do not have to worry about the income as they would still be earning in older age, just not earning through hard work. The ageing population could focus on creating more things to sell online to the younger generation and dig themselves out of the situation rather than relying on governments to solve the challenges they face.

Lets start to think differently and develop solutions to assist our ageing population rather than simply driven  to wonder about what will happen next. Lets avoid being the fear factor, by focussing on being motivated to find positive solutions.

The Australian Bureau of statistics indicates, women make up 33% of small business owners and steadily climbing. It’s being fuelled by the growth of mumpreneurs – women who launch their own business after having children, as if they didn’t have enough on their plate already!

Lets hope they do the right things to get the business up and running, find their points of difference, get the cash flow happening and are able to make it through the tough times and reap great rewards.

Lets also hope they are able to avoid the traps which can befall business and gobble up all the hard work and cash and take it away in a blink!

To all the people who start a business now and into the future I wish you all the best, remember the more information you can get on making your business flourish the better. So now take a look at our forum and the rest of the articles in our vast resources, and you will find the answers to the questions you seek…

Are you kidding me? ……… NONE!

I believe I put it best when I wrote, ” … might as well hand out bulls-eyes imprinted with “Gangs Suck” for children to wear on their back.” Seriously, putting an anti-gang message on something for children to carry around or wear – is a bad, bad idea. The good news is, the discussion brought to light a couple of insights we as marketers should keep in mind in order to keep the government, advocacy and activist groups out of our business.

1) When we take advantage of marketing opportunities, we must also recognize our tremendous responsibility. While we may have responsibility to shareholders, bottom line and market share, we must also remember that we have a responsibility to our industry and to the publics that are affected by our marketing efforts.

2 )Place emphasis on message not product. In the example above, the question, “What product do we put an anti-gang message on?” is product focused. However, had the question been, “What do we want to accomplish?” the focus could have been placed on promoting good as opposed to gang-bashing.

In an effort to not paint bulls eyes on the backs of non-gang children, many of us agreed that before worrying about which products would be appropriate, that it would be best to first change the focus of the thinking. Instead of thinking anti-gang we felt that the focus should be more along the lines of pro education, pro safety, pro future, pro self esteem or something else that doesn’t threaten the gangs.

One line of thinking is be, “Want to keep kids from joining gangs? Give them something else to join.” Now you’ve got the seed of an idea that could make for a campaign that could involve parents, band and athletic boosters, the school, school clubs, businesses, scouting, 4-H, social and civic organizations … the entire community.

For marketers, the question is, “Want to keep consumers from buying from your competitors? Give them a reason to buy from you.” Give them something to belong to.

Finally, as a public service, I want to re-emphasize the responsibility we shoulder as marketers. To that end I share with you a thought I cannot shake since I first read, “What promotional products would be good to carry an anti-gang message for middle and high school kids?”

That neat, fun, do-dad with the wrong message on it … could get someone killed.

Have a nice day:)

Once aboard the ship, we could buy a soft drink card that yielded unlimited soft drinks while on board. We also received a 16oz tumbler emblazoned with the Coke(r) logo and a small Princess(r) Cruise logo. Coke had its name in front of 3000 travelers for 10 days playing an integral role in life aboard the ship. Good promotion, no question.

Now that I’m back home, however, there sits these four tumblers on my counter. I see the Coke and the Princess logo …. so what? I am motivated to do exactly …. nothing.

For starters, it would have cost no more to imprint a website on the tumbler and perhaps a message that said, “Visit (website) to continue your cruise experience.” Since the tumblers were shrink-wrapped, it wouldn’t have cost much more to add an interactive component to the mix. Perhaps an ultra-removeable sticker affixed, inserted inside or shrink-wrapped onto the tumbler. The sticker would say, “Affix this sticker to the inside of your suitcase to remind you to visit (website) at home when you unpack.” When people got home and unpacked, that sticker would remind them to visit the website.

Another thought would be to encourage people to take photos of themselves in ports of call holding their tumblers – and email them in. Once they send their photo in, they would have reason to check back on the website to see if their photo was up. And you know as soon as they see it, they would tell all their friends and family to go to the website and see it.

With a little more thought, Coke and Princess could have leveraged something that I had to purchase in the first place … to their benefit! No kidding. Think about that. I paid money for the tumbler and drink card, giving them the opportunity to market to me during the cruise and interactively after the cruise. Now that’s brilliant! But they didn’t take it far enough.

Instead, I have a tumbler that (yawn) passively reminds me of my vacation.

If you are in the midst of developing a promotional campaign, perhaps now you have a bit more to think about. Ask yourself, “Is simply having our logo on an item good enough?” “Can we do more? Can we go further?” “How much more will a call to action really cost us?” Seriously, a great idea can be no more than another thought away.

The chat started with the difference between “May I and Can I…” May I assist you, or Can I assist you, what happened next was a BFO, (Blinding Flash of the Obvious).

You see it was so simple when he explained it. “Imagine you are at the top of a cliff and your task is to push someone off, would you say “Can I push you off or may I push you off…” ” Can I”, relates to skill and “May I” relates to permission to do a thing.” I was engaged in the conversation now, what a great hook! Yes he clearly knew his English and the lesson was simple but so good. Actually on thinking about it none of the above would get you far in the pushing stakes but it makes a point also about service being more about offering, rather than demanding. Chances are you would not ask a person if they wanted to be pushed!

I asked him for a view on my old favourite, “help and Assist” he agreed, Help is needed when you are in dire straits, assistance is softer and more readily taken up unconsciously. So many people will say “Just looking thanks” when you offer help, but more people take up an offer of assistance “May I assist you…”

It could go further you could say “May I assist you to find what you are after today?” That way you are being specific about what you are offering. Without the specifics it is so open you might get in a bit of a bind, like this… ‘May I assist  you?” asks the store attendant… “Oh yes, you can give me a million dollars, that would be great assistance…” replies the customer.

Take the time out to consider the small things like this which may impact on people  you deal with so the service you offer is as elegant and correct as possible. We also chatted briefly about G’day as a greeting, I will leave that one for another article.

Well time got the better of our conversation too quickly and circumstances meant we had to part ways, all I can hope is that I said goodbye in an elegant manner!

On providing great service, “I don’t know if you can but you may…”